Make Your Library The Center of Book Culture In Your Community

On her blog RA For All, Becky Spratford recently posted Listening to Library Users: A Wake-Up Call For Library Marketing via Super Library Marketing with a Bonus Becky Rant . What stood out to me was the fact that readers do not think about libraries as the place to go for book recommendations. This is a huge marketing opportunity for libraries to reach to local readers. Creating a culture of book recommendations and sharing of loved books is something that any library, regardless of size or budget can do. 

I encourage library workers to use expansive versions of book display themes because you don't know what will draw a reader in. People approach books from different and sometimes unexpected angles. To use a few horror titles, Grady Hendrix's How to Sell a Haunted House is also about a relationship between grown siblings and dealing with the death of parents. Cynthia Pelayo's The Shoemaker's Magician is about Chicago film history and parenting a child with special needs. These are in addition to the plot and horror themes in the books. AI will not help a reader find books that they might love beyond the obvious and simple examples. Talking to a library worker just might. 

Becky also emphasizes what I say when I talk about book displays - we should never assume that people know what we do and what we can offer them. Libraries need to tell their communities about their collections, resources, and services. It is something we need to do actively and often. 

Everyone should go to Becky's blog and review her free resources for booktalking and starting conversations. Have her train your staff on readers advisory as a conversation, not a transaction. Reach out to me if you are interested in more information about having me speak to your staff about using book displays and other forms of passive readers advisory. 

I will leave you with this anecdote - after I purchased a book by horror grand master Brian Keene, Amazon recommended self-help author Brene Brown to me. Maybe Alexa was worried about me but more than likely it was just a push for a best seller. A library worker trained in booktalking and conversations about books would not just hand a reader a best seller. A well designed display would not suggest that any best seller will do when you are looking for your next read.